This
page explains the Stafford Research Project and the basic arrangement of the
website.

The
Stafford family website is a working research document. Its content
changes on a daily basis because the author continues to research and gather
more documentation. Please check back often and use the Update Log which
is provided to help you find recent additions to the website.

Introduction

This
primary focus for the research conducted for this project started with Robert Stafford as Generation 1 and follows the line down the
generations from 1 to 4 ending with Clayton Alonzo Stafford. I have
established that William Stafford was the father of Robert Stafford; therefore,
the website / direct line starts with William even though research for his
generation is incomplete. In order to
thoroughly research a family, it is necessary to consider the family as a whole
and to gather information about the lateral lines. Consequently, I
gathered a substantial amount of information and it is only useful if it is shared with others, who have an interest
in this subject. I decided the best way to share the information with
people was to construct a working / active research website that contains
the information and documentation which is central to my research on the
Stafford family.I hope you will find it interesting and
helpful. If you need assistance finding information please feel free to
contact me and I will be happy to assist as I can.

The
information presented in this entire website is copyrighted. You may use the information on
these web pages for your personal research,
but it may not be copied and used for any other purposes including posting to other
websites without permission. Use may be granted with written permission by the author.

Formatting
and General Notes

The
pages for the direct line ancestors for Clayton Stafford (including Daniel,
Andrew, Robert and William) are formatted with the same background color.
The color scheme is shown in the table below. To help the reader stay
oriented the author has chosen to use the background color to represent the
lines descending from William. Each of William's children's pages will
have a different background color. All of the pages descending from theses
lines will have the same background color. As you move through the
generations the background colors for the pages will tell you which of William's
children was the parent line for the person you are studying.

The
following color scheme is used for the lines descending from William and his
children. Remember to use this chart to determine from which William's
children the person you are studying descends.

Line
designation

Color
of page background

William
(direct line for Clayton)

John

Jonas

James

Robert
(direct line for Clayton)

Mary - did not
marry - line ends*

Rachel -
married Wright - line ends*

*Note
1: All lines end with the last female whose maiden name is Stafford.
Once the female marries the line begins under her husband's surname. All
female lines will have the pastel color pink to designate the end of the line.

Note
2:
There is
evidence that Robert Stafford's father was William Stafford of Guilford County,
North Carolina, but I have not done much research yet on this generation.
The evidence I do have about William is present primarily to support the
conclusions about subsequent generations.

References
and citations:

Facts
are documented with a red superscripted numeral. The red superscript
refers to the list of citations on each web page. The numbers start over
for each page.

Acknowledgements:

I
would like to thank the many people and repositories that have answered my
questions, donated pictures, family group sheets and other information that has
made it possible for me to research this family. I will only name one as
there are so many that have contributed information that I might forget
someone. The one special person I will name is my dear friend, Marcy
Volny, who descends from Robert Stafford. I met her after I started
researching this line and in the process of the research and our correspondence
over the last five years we have become very good friends!! Thanks a bunch
Marcy--

Direct
Line - 5
Generations of Staffords

The
lineage that I have researched in detail is listed after William below:

Pedigree
Chart showing 5 generations - this
chart shows the primary direct line that this research is focused
around. In addition to this 5 generation line some research has been
done on the lateral lines to support the research around the direct line.